Channels, Spring 2017

P age 62 Schwartz • Inspiration or Distraction? expulsion of those who, like Debs, favored economic organization first and political success second. Though still uniquely beloved by the increasingly fractured rank and file, Debs’ unskillful maneuvering left him isolated among the party leadership, leading inevitably to another presidential campaign. The 1912 campaign started inauspiciously for Debs. Berger and Hillquit managed to put together 40 percent of delegates to nominate reform candidates against Debs. Then, they saddled him with J. Mahlon Barnes, a reform-minded, scandal-ridden former Party secretary, when many had considered Debs’ brother Theodore a better choice. 57 Debs was furious and formally protested, but to no avail. 58 Nevertheless, he campaigned hard. The discontent over Taft’s government and Roosevelt’s Progressive third-party candidacy provided a situation of general public unrest along with established figures and parties accepting more radical agendas. This was the perfect backdrop for Debs’ message that “The cause [of the present unrest] does not lie in a maladministration of the present government, but in the very structure of society” and “the remedy must be found in a reconstruction of all existing systems.” 59 There was little new in his message, but in the favorable environment, each venue was packed to hear Debs. Its membership three times as large as Debs’ last campaign, the Socialist Party machine had hundreds of newspapers, with the Appeal to Reason at a circulation of above 500,000. 60 Ultimately, Debs reached his highest electoral total yet, roughly 6 percent of the vote at around 900,000 votes, a far cry from the paltry 96,000 votes of 1900. Many states far exceeded this percentage; Oklahoma yielded 16.61 percent, Montana and Arizona over 13 percent, and Washington and California around 12 percent. With such continued improvement, Socialist Party leaders hoped that Party membership would continue to rise, more state and local elections could be won, and the Party would be the vehicle to give the Socialist movement lasting legitimacy. Unfortunately, despite the hopeful number of votes, after 1912 the Socialist Party would experience the repercussions of expelling the radicals, the loss of its primary standard bearer, and the damage from events overseas. After the 1912 campaign, Debs was in very poor health. The strong showing had required yet another round of non-stop, cross-country speaking tours that wore out his body. Now fifty-seven, Debs experienced a complete “physical and emotional collapse” in September of 1913, requiring that he spend months bedridden in a sanitarium in Colorado to simply recover his strength. 61 He began touring again in 1914 only to experience once again the limitations that age and past hard use now imposed on his body, as “torn leg muscles, 57 Ibid, p. 248. 58 Morgan, H. Wayne. 1962. Eugene V. Debs; socialist for President . n.p.: Syracuse, University Press, 1962., 128. 59 Morgan, H. Wayne. 1962. Eugene V. Debs; socialist for President . n.p.: Syracuse, University Press, 1962., 129. 60 Ibid, 132-133. 61 Salvatore, Nick. 1982. Eugene V. Debs : citizen and socialist . n.p.: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, ©1982., 272.